


Niceties

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [64]
Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Female Friendship, Fix-It, Gen, Hospitals, Shopping, Stuffed Toys, Vampire Family, agency and choices!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 09:27:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2807603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The family runs a rather specific (and in some of their opinions, silly) errand before joining Sookie at the hospital.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Niceties

**Author's Note:**

> Part two, "Numb."

“What are we doin’ here again?” Pam asks.

“I told you, I wanna get something for Jason,” Jessica pouts, turning to fix the older vampire with her defiant stare.  “And I didn’t wanna get him something from the gift store in the hospital.  That’d be lazy.”

“Oh, I don’t think anyone is going to accuse you of being lazy in this endeavor,” Eric drawls.  He pulls into a parking space and stops the car rather abruptly, smiling in that _way_ he has.

“Still,” Jessica mutters, opening her door and hopping out of the car.

The others follow suit, Willa bouncing a bit and Pam almost sneering and Nora looking wholly confused, and upon registering that expression of Nora’s, Jessica impulsively reaches for her hand.  It’s a silent thank you as much as anything, and one that nobody else misses but also nobody else mentions.

“Onward,” Eric declares like it’s some grand quest.

And with a nod, Jessica leads the group toward the Toys ‘R’ Us.  They must look a sight, five full-grown women trailed by an unusually tall full-grown man, none looking remotely the sorts who know _anyone_ who might be receiving anything from a Toys ‘R’ Us. 

But apparently, appearances are deceiving.

“So does Jason have a favorite animal or anything?” Willa asks.

“Not panthers,” Jessica says immediately.  “But pretty much anything else is okay.  I was thinkin’ probably just a bear?  They usually have big cuddly ones of those.”

“Is he really going to be able to cuddle the thing?” Pam asks.  “Bein’ all…”

Tara yanks her hand to get her to stop talking.  It’s not that Jason’s condition is at all a secret, but it’s also not something that probably needs excessive discussion.

“Manly,” Pam concludes instead, rolling her eyes but mostly at the fact that now apparently she’s the kind of woman who amends herself so quickly for someone else’s sake.  “He likes to act like a tough guy, tough guys don’t usually dig on teddy bears.”

Jessica shrugs.  “Jason’s plenty cuddly,” she says, stopping abruptly in the main corridor to figure out where they need to go.

“I’ll meet you guys over there,” Willa murmurs absently.  “I, uh…”  And she strides off in the direction of the doll aisle, texting frantically the whole time.

Nodding, Jessica leads the others off in the appropriate direction, looking extremely contemplative; Nora and Eric are trying to seem interested, Tara and Pam don’t even bother.

“What are the odds little sister’s gettin’ her baby girlfriend a present?” Pam asks Tara.

“I don’t know,” Tara retorts, “but I’ve seen _your_ Barbie collection, I don’t think you’re in a place to get snippy about it.”

“You have a Barbie collection?” Jessica exclaims over her shoulder.  “Where is it?  Are they all displayed fancy and in their boxes and shit?”

“Pam practically _is_ a Barbie,” Eric drawls.

“Shut up,” Pam tells him with a roll of her eyes.

“I think it’s cool,” Jessica says.  “I wasn’t allowed to play with ‘em when I was little.  Dad didn’t want me gettin’ ideas.  But some of ‘em are super pretty.”

“Of course,” Pam says with a smirk, then softening.  “If you’re really interested, I’ll show you when we get home.  They’re out of the boxes, but that doesn’t mean they’re for playin’.”

Jessica hums contentedly, then, seeing she’s finally directed them to the stuffed toys, stops to examine the options.

“So something – cuddly,” Nora says faintly, staring at the selection with a blankly bewildered expression that’s almost funny.

“Yeah,” Jessica agrees. “I mean, nothin’ too babylike, but… I dunno.”

“Should I text Sookie and ask?” Tara offers, sounding not entirely bothered by the prospect.

“Nah, I want it to be a surprise,” Jessica murmurs.  She reaches for a bear, brown and fuzzy and very traditional.  “Is this one too basic?” 

 

* * *

 

“Hey, Sookie,” Jessica says softly, poking her head in the hospital room.

“Hey, Jess,” Sookie replies, giving a tired smile.

“How’s he doin’?” Jessica asks.

“He hasn’t gotten worse,” Sookie offers.  She waves a hand, pats the chair beside her.  “You can come in, sweetie, it’s okay.”

“Okay,” Jessica agrees, sounding hesitant about it.  “C’mon, you guys.”  She enters, tugging on her jacket, and to Sookie’s not-surprise, she’s followed by Nora-and-Eric (holding hands) and then Tara-and-Pam (holding hands) and finally Willa, who’s carrying a giant Toys ‘R’ Us bag.

“Wow, all y’all came,” Sookie says.

“Is that okay?” Willa asks nervously.  “I mean, we coulda skipped if… that’s…”

“Nah, it’s nice,” Sookie says, firmly friendly.  “Hey, everyone.”

“Hey,” Tara murmurs, coming to rest a hand on Sookie’s shoulder.  “Sorry about this, Sook.”

“It’s fine,” Sookie sighs.  “I mean, it’s not _fine_ , but it coulda happened on his job, or on the street, or…”

“What she means is she doesn’t blame y’all,” Charlaine declares, leading her sisters into the room.  All four of them are holding slushies, Adilyn and Braelyn’s blue and Charlaine and Danika’s red, and their mouths are accordingly stained.

Of course, this earns her a gentle smack from Adilyn, who then says, “Good evening.”

“And to you,” Eric says grandly with a tip of his head.  He turns to Sookie and says, “Lucky you’ve got a respectably-sized room for him, with all of these visitors.”

“Oh!” Willa exclaims suddenly.  “Jess, the…”

“’Course,” Jessica agrees, going to dig in that overlarge bag, which yields… a giant floppy panda bear that she sits on the foot of Jason’s bed.  “I figured…”

“He’ll love it,” Sookie assures.  “You can get him a little cozier if you wanna.”

Jessica’s eyes go wide; she turns for some encouragement, sees Tara and Nora and Adilyn all nodding like it’s gonna be okay.  “Yeah, all right,” she whispers.  She picks up the bear and snuggles it up next to Jason.

He doesn’t stir, of course, but his calm is suddenly comforting instead of terrifying.

“Hey, Jase,” Jessica murmurs, sitting on the bed beside the bear and taking his hand.  “I didn’t get to say thank you the other night.”

She looks around again and sees everyone staring at her intently (except Pam, who of course looks mildly bored).  Charlaine hums a few bars of that song from _Enchanted_ with this hopeful expression and Danika pointedly steps on her foot to get her to shut up.

Maybe just out of mutual concerns, Adilyn and Nora have gravitated toward each other (Nora is idly fussing with the collar of Adilyn’s dress) and definitely because of their budding relationship Willa and Braelyn have magnetized together.

“I’m sorry,” Jessica whispers without really knowing why, wiping a tear from her eye.

“Don’t be,” says Tara.

“Keep talkin’,” Sookie suggests.  “Maybe it helps him.  Isn’t that what they say?”

“Okay,” Jessica agrees, though she sounds doubtful.  “Well.  Everyone came out to see you tonight, Jason.”

“Hi!” Willa calls out.

“Sookie an’ the girls’ve been here a while, ‘course, but all of us – ”

“The family,” Willa supplies with a smile.

“Yeah,” Jessica murmurs, nodding gratefully at her adopted sister.  “’Cause of it bein’ daytime earlier we only just got here.  And we had to stop to pick this guy up.  Gosh, it was funny, there’s nobody who looks less at home in a toy store than Eric an’ Nora an’ Pam.”

“A vanilla toy store, maybe,” Pam mutters.

Jessica rolls her eyes, thoughtfully continuing, “It’s weird knowin’ we met our big endgame goal, but it’s a good weird.  Burden off our shoulders or somethin’.”

“Not that there isn’t still work to be done,” Nora interrupts before she can stop herself, but off Jessica’s startled look and Tara’s cautioning one, she adds more softly, “It’s different work, though, and when you’re awake you’ll be invaluable to the process, I’m sure.”

That seems to assuage everyone, but it gives Nora an idea, or cements her idea rather.  So while Jessica resumes the friendly monologue, Nora locks eyes with Sookie and mouths, “May I speak to you in the hall?”

Sookie looks perplexed for a moment, but ultimately she nods and rises from her chair, nodding for Nora to follow.  Eric can’t help but raise an eyebrow as he watches this, but he holds himself back from commenting.

“Anyone else wanna say anything?” Jessica asks the group.


End file.
